Perez is a professional bra fitter ready to liberate women gouged by straps, engulfed in elastic and wounded by wires.

This month she's hopscotching through Macy's stores where a team of professionals is offering complimentary fittings to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a nonprofit organization that raises money to fight breast cancer.

Other South Florida stores, including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and Dillard's, are also participating in the benefit. In addition, many stores have trained bra fitters who fit customers year-round.

Though professional bra fitting isn't new, Oprah can take some credit for sending women to stores in search of re-sizing. When she does a show about the importance of getting the right fit, "women come running," says Margaret Robinson, a professional fitter at Dilliard's at Palm Beach Mall in West Palm Beach.

Here's the problem. Women, smart as we are, can't get it right.

An oft-quoted statistic says that anywhere from 70 percent to 80 percent of us are strapped into the wrong bra. And if that's not convincing, who'd doubt the daunting Veronica Webb, the fashionista who pokes through undies drawers of hapless victims on Tim Gunn's Bravo show Guide to Style and proclaims the garments an ill-fitting mess?

We're squeezing into bras with too-small cups. We're sagging in bras with bands too big. Though the subject of getting a bra just right sounds titillating, it's serious business.

So listen, ladies. When your bra rises up in the back and the underwire digs your flesh, it's time to toss it.

Trust Perez on this and more. For 20-plus years, she's helped women slip into something more comfortable - and correctly sized.

It's an intimate job, this business of fitting folks in intimate apparel. It calls for tact, patience and careful hands as she measures around, under and over the breasts and gently tugs here and there.

"See?" she says, lifting the back of the bra. "Too loose."

"Bras," she adds with the authority of a woman who knows, "shouldn't be uncomfortable."

Lifting their spirits, too

For professional bra fitters, the cup is always half full, and we don't mean with breast tissue. Perez and Robinson like their job, which helps women look and feel better. In a world filled with impossible problems, they're the fixers. And that's . . . uplifting.

"I've had women leave in tears, they were so happy to have a bra that finally fit," Robinson says.

She once followed a super saggy woman into a restaurant restroom to quietly offer her services. The woman was grateful.

So was a woman who said she and her husband were "rediscovering themselves" now that the kids were grown. Perez made sure the wife headed home with lovely lacy lingerie that fit wonderfully.

But for super satisfaction, what tops helping a woman with a double mastectomy look like the person she was before?

She owns 30 bras herself

In a let-it-all-hang-out world, Perez likes to keep it all tucked in concerning personal matters.

No, we can't reveal her bra size but she'll allow that she owns more bras than shoes - 30, in fact, and all perfectly fitted, for sure.

When she enters a roomful of women, her eyes automatically scan chests in need of her services. After so many years, it just comes naturally.

"I'm a bra expert," she'll say, explaining her job. Often as not, women instantly flock to her with questions. They're happy to have her support.

Liz Doup can be reached at ldoup@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4722.

Inside

For more information about getting your own fitting go to page 2E

INFORMATIONAL BOX:

sexy tips for a better bra fit

1 Your bra size changes as you age, after babies and with weight loss or gain. While wearing a bra, check your size with a tape measure pulled snugly straight across your back and under your breasts.

If it's 34 inches or less, add 4 if the number is even, 5 if it's odd.

For 35 to 38 inches, add 2 for even, 3 for odd. For 39 inches or more, add nothing for even, 1 for odd. For instance, if you measure 31 inches, your band size is 36. (31 plus 5).

Now measure around the fullest part of the bust, about 2 inches under the underarm. Each inch over the band size is a cup size - starting with A, B, C, etc. In this example, if the final band measurement is 39 inches, you're a C. (36 plus 3.)

2 If straps dig into your shoulders, you're wearing the wrong size. Support should come from the back and underwire, not the straps.

3 To eliminate "back fat" - the flesh bulging out around the band - go with a wider-back bra.

4 Bras come in different styles as well as sizes. The "cut and sewn" bra, with cups made from multiple pieces of fabric, shapes breasts that have lost elasticity. The contour bra offers shape without adding volume. The seamless bra produces a natural silhouette and underwire bras give support.

5 A new bra should be most comfortable on the middle hook. This gives you leeway to loosen or tighten your bra with bodily changes, such as water retention.

6 The center seam should be flat against your breastbone. If it isn't, the cup size is too small.

Free fittings by a team of professionals will be offered at various South Florida stores during October and November.

For each fitting, Wacoal, a lingerie company, will donate $2 to Susan G. Komen For the Cure, a nonprofit organization that fights breast cancer, and an additional $2 with the purchase of selected garments.

Here's a partial list of fittings (check with other stores for similar opportunities):

The Wonderbra and a competitor called the Miracle Bra emerged in the mid-'90s. At the time, Jay Leno quipped: "Is that really a problem in this country? Men not paying enough attention to women's breasts?"